The layout is the heart of your railroad system. The arrangement of the tracks, switches, crossings, and uncouplers determines what you can do with your trains to make their operation a source of never-ending fascination.
You can make the rails curve, go straight ahead, lead into a siding, branch into an alternate route, tunnel through mountains, pass over bridges, circle through an earth cut, or thread through a maze of switches at a terminal or freight yard.
Where your train goes and what it does is up to you, and you’re limited only by the space at your disposal. Even if your space is quite small, you can make your train duplicate almost everything that real trains do.
Choosing a layout is really a personal matter. No one else can tell you how to arrange your model railway. All that can be done is to show the meaning of various space limitations and to suggest some of the many possibilities that you’ll adapt and combine, according to your own wishes.
Never hesitate to try out your ideas to see if they will work, even if you can’t find them in the layout diagrams in any book.
Before you are through you’ll without a doubt choose several layouts, discarding or changing one to make another that appeals to you more.
And you won’t be satisfied with that one for very long…
You’ll invent a new plan or will become more interested in one aspect of railroading than another and change your layout to suit that interest.
You may prefer switching operations, running multiple trains, or timetable scheduling — and you’ll plan your railroad accordingly.
You will add another table, an extension of some kind that increases the potential immensely.
The Basic Building Blocks
Along with your train set you have at least a circle of track, consisting of twelve curved sections. In S gauge this is forty inches in diameter, so you will need a space at least forty by forty inches.
Whether that space is on the floor, on a sheet of plywood or on a tabletop will be up to you.
Some train sets also have a few sections of straight track to make an oval, which is really just a lengthened circle. If you have two sections of straight track and put them in your circle at opposite points, you will have an oval forty by fifty inches.
Four straight sections, two on each side, will give you an oval forty by sixty. Six straight sections, along with the twelve curved, make the longest oval you can put on a 4′ x 6′ board.
Going Beyond the Basics
Now, a simple circle or oval doesn’t really imitate a real railroad all that well. After all, a real railroad’s reason for existing is to travel from point-to-point, not simply to go around in circles.
Taking a simple model railroad layout and modifying it to be more realistic, while still fitting within the limits of your available space (and budget!) is the key to getting the most enjoyment out of this hobby.
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